The dawn of the 20th century was the dawn of contemporary Indian painting also. This revival of sorts in Indian art was spearheaded by the Tagore family. The famous contemporary artists of that era were mostly influenced by the great heritage of India that encompassed themes based on the two great Indian epics, the murals found in Ajanta and Ellora, Mughal and Rajput school of Miniature painting, etc.

After India’s Independence, there was a rise of unapologetic European style of painting. The contemporary Indian art gallery of those times used to comprise heavily of works from the group of painters who wanted to show pains and horrors of the World Wars and the resultant disillusionment.

There was only one painter in India though who ventured to portray the tragedies of Indian partition.

His name was Satish Gujral. His works proved to be a turning point as the subsequent painters evolved their own individual style and were able to shrug off the colonial prejudices.This led to the flourishing of new ideas flourished and the Indian art gallery of those days started exhibiting these refreshingly new art works. This was followed by art galleries and art collections all over the world.

The contemporary art gallery in India these days will display traditional art specimens, but also the latest genre of robust and bold paintings that come with a sophistication and elegance of their own.  They are a manifestation of the fusion of the myriad art forms that has influenced the development of contemporary art.

The first among famous contemporary artists of pre-Independence India was Abanindranath Tagore. He used Japanese and Chinese techniques in his paintings and was soon followed by other Indian painters who formed the contemporary Indian style of painting which is still being developed. Some famous Indian painters of the pre-Independence era were Rabindranath Tagore, Samarendranath Gupta, Amrita Shergill,  Jamini Roy, Nandlal Bose, A.K. Haldar and Raja Ravi Verma.

Contemporary Indian paintings have evolved into unique entities reflecting the emotional and intuitive concepts of Indian culture. This has been accomplished with a touch of soft magic that emanates from the elegant art works.

The famous contemporary artists renowned all over the world for their splendid paintings are Laxman Shreshtha, Satish Gujral, Deepak Shinde, Sanjay Bhattacharya, S.H. Raza, N.S. Bendre, Anjolie Ela Menon and Prabhakar Barwe. An Indian art gallery that displays the works any of these artists is usually assured of attracting many art lovers.